Cyber Districts

[QC planner]

I am doing some research on the impact of municipally installed and owned high-speed fiber on local economies. Is providing this type of high tech infrastructure proven to boost local economies? How effective is it and what kind of impact can we expect to have? What kind of other incentives are necessary to attract high-tech businesses to a given area? Does anybody know of successful and unsuccessful cyber district initiatives? Let me know.

 

[Tranplanner]

Sudbury, Ontario partnered with AT&T and some other private/public sector partners to bring broad-band to that community a few years ago. I'm not certain what the economic boost was - it did help attract a few call centres I think, but the advantage was negated relatively quickly once the rest of the world caught up.

 

[OhioPlanner]

In Dublin, Ohio the city set up the conduit for the fiber optic system. Each company that wants to lay fiber in the city has to use this conduit system. The system makes a loop around the business district area.

They have found this to be effective. It reduces the amount of right of way that is torn up and allows the city access to the conduit system.

They developed a public-private partnership with a company to install the system. They have had this in place for a few years.

 

[Cardinal]

The value of fiber will be highly variable depending on the community. You need to do an assessment of the potential workforce and a good targeted industries study to determine if it is appropriate for you, and if maybe the better strategy is to point out a need to the private sector.

On a related note, several communities are now providing city-wide wireless networks to their residents as a utility service. This has some interesting possibilities not only for improving Internat access, but for delivery of public services as well.